Not a Real King
by Kakaranaya
Summary: Sinbad refuses to help his old country in its time of need, but that doesn't sit well with one girl... Told from Sinbad's POV or third person. Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** I've been planning to work on writing in a Dangan Ronpa fanfic I had started, but I should probably let everyone know of my unconditional love of Magi. It's told from Sinbad's POV. This is slightly AU-ish seeing as Sinbad might not actually respond like this and with an OC being one of the main characters. I feel like I write too many serious fics, but anyways, I hope you like it!

* * *

"Please, King Sinbad, Partevia needs your help," a desperate face looked up at me as I gazed over the small crowd gathered at the foot of my throne.

"Help the war-obsessed country that stole my father from me? That ridiculed him even as he was at death's door?" I scoffed. I looked at Ja'far, who's hurt and confusion was more apparent than mine. I stood, trying to seem more confident than I really was.

"I do not hate the citizens of Partevia, but this country refused to help my family in their time of need. With that said, I will do the same in its time of need." Why was I telling these complete strangers this? My decisions are never backed by emotion but by calculating what is best for myself and for my country, but this time, I couldn't help but consider the hurt this country brought. My dad's leg, his life, my mother's life… Is this all I can really think of when thinking back to my youth in that little village?

"Sin, maybe we should listen to them…" Ja'far said, a look of uncertainty plastered across his face. He doesn't have many fond memories of this country and its citizens, as well, but even so, he's still concerned about their well-being. He's so soft.

"No, my decision is final," I declared after a moment, and only a moment, of second thought. "I'll allow you to stay in Sindria for as long as you wish, but I will not get involved with Partevia's affairs. Try another king, perhaps."

"Do you think we wanted to ask you? We had no other choice! You're the only person from Partevia that has any feasible reason to give us outside help." A small girl, only fourteen or fifteen years of age, pushed her way to the front of the crowd. Her pale, thin face was clouded with rage and disgust. "Do you really have so little loyalty to your birth country that you won't even spare one troop or even a few metal vessels? There's a reason that so many of us do love Partevia, and it's a pity you can't see it," she practically spat. Her loyalty wasn't like many of the people I knew back when I was younger. She didn't spew out words like "expatriot." She wasn't brainwashed by the need for her country to win wars. What an interesting girl. She could prove to be useful; I could use her will to my advantage.

"What's your name?"

"That's completely off top-"

"Just answer."

"Demir." That name doesn't fit such a small girl like her. I took in her features. She had two long swords strapped across her back, each with wooden carved hilts and dull metal blades. Her eyes were completely gray, no pupils, a trait of a small semi-nomadic clan. Her long arms were flawed by nicks and scars

"Demir, although I still won't help Partevia, I can help you. Come live in Sindria with me in my palace. I have a master swordsman that could teach you so much. Maybe you could even become one of my eight, well, with the addition of you, nine generals."

The crowd became silent, save a few shocked murmurs, by my sudden proposition. Demir looked at me, no notable emotion on her face.

"Stop playing king," she finally said with a low monotone voice.

"Excuse me?"

"I said for you to stop playing king. Please, everyone knows your story. Your father was a fisherman, and, although he was a fine man, he was no king. You had to pay for the land your country is on. I don't know any other way to get so many citizens in, what, ten years, without having to bribe them. You didn't start this country by any military conquests or being rightfully born to the throne, you had to buy your way up. You aren't a real king, so stop acting like you are. The only person you're fooling is yourself." She looked at me in the eyes, believing firmly what she said. She didn't attack my right to be king. She didn't say I was incompetent to be one, either. She merely questioned my methods of becoming one, which was, for some reason, more effective. I'm used to my enemies babbling out illogical insults at my feet, but she logically and calmly blew holes in my reign.

She's not wrong, though. I had to buy this island from another country using the money and treasure I got from capturing dungeons. I had to bribe many citizens, as well. I didn't become king of this country by any accepted ways, at least in the eyes of everyone else. I didn't believe this to be a problem until now.

"Sin…" Ja'far said, slightly nudging my arm. I had been staring at the girl in shock, and she looked back with a slightly victorious but slightly confused glint in her dark eyes.

I cleared my throat. "I take that as a no?"

"Damn right."

"Very well. Please leave my palace with your friends, then."

The small group left quickly, crestfallen with the lack of results and quieted by the girl's defiance. I slumped back into my throne.

"Not a real king, huh…"

What a draining day.

* * *

Demir is a Turkish name meaning "of iron." Sinbad thinks it's odd that a girl as small as her would have a name associated with a metal.


	2. Chapter 2

"Well, that was a bust…" said Ismet, Demir's older brother.

"He didn't even listen to what we had to say…" another member said.

"Who needs that shitty king? I don't even see why we needed to ask him in the first place…" Demir said, trailing behind the group, still bothered by Sinbad's utter refusal to even think about helping. "He didn't listen because he thinks he's better than us. He named a damn country after himself. It's not like "the High King of the Seven Seas cares about little Partevia anymore."

"He does, you just didn't approach him right," said a soft voice from behind.

"Yunan! You lying piece of sh-" Yunan covered Demir's mouth with his hand and made a sign to "zip it" with the other.

"Come with me," Yunan said, taking her by the arm and dragging her down a narrow side alley.

After a few minutes of walking, they arrived to a fountain near the middle of town. Yunan sat down on the stone, slightly damp side of the fountain.

"I thought you said he would help us," Demir said.

"I said he'd help if you asked him the right way. Didn't I specifically say not to take a whole group in there?"

"We thought that was a stupid idea."

"Obviously."

Demir took in Yunan's features in carefully. He didn't look nearly as old as he said he was. He didn't even seem like a powerful Magi; he cried when her little brother punched him. Granted, her little brother had been training in martial arts since he was two, but still.

He was always quite pretty for a boy. She's always been jealous of his long, shiny, pretty blonde hair. It was much better looking than her plainly styled, white hair. He always insisted that it was "lovely", but she always thought it made her look like an old woman. When she said so, he'd always scold her saying, "Age doesn't make a difference. Look at me, I've lived nine life times and still look like I'm 16, do I not?" She'd agree each time and drop the subject for the time being.

"…What?" Yunan eyed Demir suspiciously.

"What what?"

"You were staring at me." Demir's normally pale skin flushed a brilliant pink. Was she staring? If she was, he wasn't bad to stare at, at least…

"Must have been your imagination."

"Anyways, what are you going to do about Sinbad?"

"We don't need Sinbad. I'm sure we can help Partevia on our own."

"You'll need an alliance with a strong country, you know that, and Partevia has made enemies with basically every country. Sindria is honestly your best bet."

"Well, why do I have to deal with that bastard? Ismet is much more diplomatic."

"Probably because he chooses not to use the word 'bastard' to describe every person he doesn't like."

"Whatever."

Yunan sighed. He wouldn't normally ask Demir to handle something like this, but Sinbad seemed to have taken a special interest in her. It's understandable, however; Demir was quite interesting.

"Demir, all you have to do is go back, explain to him what will happen, and ask for help. I'll even go with you if you would like."

"…Please do."

"Right, so we go now?"

"Now? Shouldn't we wait a little bit, so we don't seem desperate?"

"No. He's probably still mentally shocked from your little outburst."

"Don't bring that up," Demir said, sighing and turning on her heel to go in the direction of the palace.


	3. Chapter 3

"Sin, it looks like the girl's back," Ja'far said, looking out the window down at the long pathway to the palace. "It looks like there's someone else with her."

"Hm? Let me see," I said, lazily getting off the silk couch and walking to the window Ja'far was intently gazing out of. I could make out two figures walking down the long path to the palace. One was definitely the girl (Demir, was it?); I could tell from the two swords strapped to her back. The other figure was definitely not a part of her group from earlier, but it was definitely a familiar figure…

And then it hit me.

"What the hell is this!?" I shouted, violently turning and almost sprinting out of the room and down the palace hallways.

"Is it him?" Ja'far asked, walking a few paces behind me.

"Unless someone was able to copy his exact genetic makeup, yes." _Damn, why is he here?_ I thought. Yunan hasn't shown up for years, and when he does, he hasn't changed a bit. And he's with the girl… Is he helping her? How does he know her?

"He's probably the one who suggested that they come to us for help," Ja'far said, opening the large door to the palace.

"Yeah," I said. I stepped out into courtyard, hearing the early silence of night set it, only to be disrupted by-

"Sinbad! Long time, no see!" Yunan said, giving me that fake innocent smile of his. Demir looked at him, obviously not used to this tone of voice from him. She whispered something to him, to which he replied with a shrug of his shoulders and a crooked smile. "Do you mind helping out my dear friend? Her country, your country as well, does need help. I'm sure she can explain better than I can what's going on there." He turned to her expectantly. She shot him a quick glare before taking a step forward, but I cut her off before she could start.

"What makes you think that I'll listen to you now? Nothing has changed since you were here a couple hours ago."

Demir honestly looked like she was about to come over and hit me with her sword (she even had one hand on a hilt), but before she could, Yunan cut in. "Trust me, if you listen and decide to help, it will definitely benefit Sindria."

"That's the problem, I don't trust you."

"The feeling is quite mutual."

Demir pulled Yunan's hat over his face, probably to get him to shut up. "Anyways, if you two are done bickering like two old housewives, I probably have something more important to say. So will you finally listen?"

I sighed and crossed my arms. I guess if I heard her out, I'd understand what Yunan is up to. "Fine, go ahead."

"Thank you, you royal pain in the ass…" Demir 'muttered' under her breath, even though she might as well have been screaming it in my face. "Well, basically the majority of Partevia wants to overthrow the new emperor."

"New emperor?" I didn't know Partevia was under new rule, but I was even more surprised to hear that the country's loyal citizens would ever think of doing something against their country. The last time I ever heard anything about it, they were still willing to give up anything to help Partevia win their war. It's all they ever thought about, in fact.

"Bahadur Halabi. The old emperor died, and the empress married him. He became emperor at the request of the empress, even though the oldest son should have gotten that place, but that was only the first thing that made people suspicious.

"He is even more power hungry than the previous ruler. He even started forcing monks to fight in wars, which, as you know, was unheard of just a few years ago. That got many of the more religious people upset. A lot of them started refusing to go and fight, but they were all executed, which put a stop to most of the rebellious actions. However, the rumors didn't stop, and more and more people got upset just from hearing about it.

"Making the monks go against their beliefs isn't even the worst part. A few months later, the emperor made a new law saying that if a child has any signs of having any type of skill in using magoi, the parent must bring the child to the army to be specially trained, no matter the age of the child. Any parent failing to do so would be charged with treason and executed. No one took it seriously until soldiers came around inspecting children. About fourth of the children in the country were taken away for further testing and possible training. One-fourth of the children taken overall were under two years old.

"Normally, it'd be bearable for the parents because at least most of them would get their kids back, and the kids in training would be able to at least write and sometimes visit their parents, but whatever kid taken who actually didn't have skill in controlling magoi was sent back dead. The test was seeing how they reacted with a special kind of herb. People who are cut out to magicians or have the potential to use metal vessels don't experience any side effects, but otherwise, they're dead within an hour.

"Everyone was now livid with hate. My father, the leader of the Am clan, visited the capital and talked with many of the representatives from each area of the empire and some other clan leaders in secret. They decided that the best thing to do was to overthrow the emperor, make amends with the countries we're at war with, and start over from a clean slate."

Yunan, who was looking intently at Demir while she was talking, turned back to me. "And there you have it. What do you say?"

True, it's such a shame that all of that is happening in Partevia, but I'm still not sure. These people didn't seem to care when my family needed help. They didn't care about Ja'far except to use him as an assassin. However, I don't want to outright say no after hearing all of what is going on… Maybe I can talk my way out of it. I doubt charm would work on her. "I fail to see why you need my help."

"Well, first of all, we'll most likely need weapons. I doubt the emperor will let this be solved peacefully, and the army monopolizes all the weapons in Partevia. Also, it'll be pretty hard to make peace with all the countries we're at war with without some sort of influence from another country. Sindria is on good terms with a lot of countries, so I'm sure they'll take your opinion into account. Plus, a couple of soldiers from another country never hurts…" Demir seemed to know what she was talking about. I doubt I can talk my way out. Despite her temper, I can see why she was sent here to negotiate with Sindria, although I wish they did send someone more official as well.

"Demir, I'm much more willing to help now that someone has actually explained it."

"You refused to let us explain before!"

"And I apologize for that. Nevertheless, you'll have to give me time to think. Please come back tomorrow with the rest of your group. I will have your answer by then."

Demir turned to Yunan, who smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Alright, Sinbad, we'll be back tomorrow." After this, she promptly turned on her heel and walked away, head held high, obviously aware of the fact that she has the nerve to "forget" the 'King' in front of 'Sinbad.' Yunan started after her.

"Wait, Yunan," I called after him, earning the attention of both him and Demir. "I want to talk to you."


End file.
